BUENA VISTA — He began a sentence with “When I was little,” but it’s difficult to imagine anything pint-sized about Mason Finley.
Everything about him is L-A-R-G-E. The 17-year-old junior at Buena Vista, a transfer from Salida, stands tall (6-feet-8) and wide (330 pounds).
He recently took the Colorado pedestal above all other discus throwers since local prep track and field was first recorded in 1902 — he set the state’s all-time best mark with 202 feet, 10 inches.
Perhaps the only small aspect of the native of Kansas City, Mo., is his ego.
“I didn’t jump up or down, but I was very excited,” said Finley, who attained the throw at an Eagle Valley meet in Gypsum. “I usually don’t show too much emotional arrogance. But I was definitely proud.”
Said Buena Vista assistant coach Mike Carr: “He’s such a great kid, who’s so humble. He did it, they clapped for him and he just walked away.”
Finley’s effort was only the second time a Coloradan has surpassed 200 feet. Arvada’s Jim Banich, now assisting at his alma mater, went 202-1 in a prep meet in California soon after he graduated in 1982. While coaching at Maranatha Christian, Banich got a glimpse of Finley at the 2007 Class 3A-2A championships in Pueblo and was floored.
“The sky is the limit with this guy,” Banich said. “He is one big, coordinated young man.”
Not coincidently, Finley has big goals. The best mark in the nation this season, according to high school track and field website , is 213-1 by John Talbert of Kansas City (Kan.) East Academy, and well within Finley’s sights. As for the all-time schoolboy mark, 234-3, set by Orem (Utah) Mountain View’s Niklas Arrhenius in 2001, it’s one Finley openly admits he has targeted, as is fulfilling an Olympic dream.
“I really want it,” Finley said. “I still have another year to go for that national record. I’m going for that. It’s way out there, but I’ll keep working hard. . . . I have Olympic aspirations, I really want to go.”
It began for Finley in sixth grade.
“Instead of goin’ fishin’, we went discus throwin’,” said Finley’s father, Jared, who stands 6-7 1/2 and was an accomplished thrower as a schoolboy in Kansas, then for the University of Wyoming Cowboys.
The younger Finley said he “saw all of my dad’s medals, and it probably attracted me. It took me a while, but I really started enjoying it in high school.”
It has enjoyed him back — Finley finished seventh in discus at state as a freshman, won discus and shot put as a sophomore, and learned to laugh at video from past years.
“We’ll watch it and he’ll say, ‘Dad, how did you ever put up with me?’ ” Jared Finley said.
It’s all about technique in the discus, and Finley, even with his great size, understands it.
“When you get a big guy like that who will concentrate for you, that’s the deal,” said Mullen coach John Hancock, whose teams have won 10 Colorado team titles. “When Jim Banich set the record, he couldn’t bench 185 pounds. It was all technique, not necessarily a strength deal. A lot of people don’t get through the ring and get to the block point.”
As for those around Finley, they want blockers around them when he’s practicing. He’s to the point where he warms up with the discus in the 190s and regularly puts the shot in the 55-to-60-feet range. When he throws the discus, it’s as if someone yells “Pull!” while skeet-shooting and it seems to go high enough to clear nearby Mount Columbia. He has been known to scatter teammates, even classmates in other spring sports.
“The (girls) soccer team has to wait to practice until he’s done,” Buena Vista head track coach Kyle Graff said. “They’ll stay out of there so somebody doesn’t get drilled.”
Ditto for meets. Two weekends ago, when Finley launched his epic throw at Eagle Valley, Graff said Gypsum officials “knew what was coming and changed the entire throwing area, they barricaded it off. It was cool.”
Jeff Schroll, Eagle Valley’s coach, called it “insane, it was beautiful, one for the memory books.”
Ordinarily, he said, his school’s meets leave about 160 feet for the discus, and he was worried Finley would skip it into the pole-vault area. He’s glad the area was extended.
“It was a privilege to see it,” Schroll said. “He got a great ovation, and the atmosphere of him being there fired up the whole crowd.”
Finley was one of the selling points at the recent board of control meeting in which it was said that he would be one athlete everyone would want to watch in a change to an all-classification meet in 2009. If he unleashes a record throw at next month’s state championships at Dutch Clark Stadium in Pueblo, the discus may go over an accompanying cliff.
“And it couldn’t be measured for a record,” Banich said.
Finley travels to national meets in the summer and the offseason could be really interesting — he’s NCAA-power Auburn’s No. 1 recruit. Graff can only gush. He was a high schooler at Gateway in Aurora, was around when Banich was tearing up the local circuit and was coach at Mancos in the days of future NFL lineman Luther Elliss.
“I’ve been lucky, guys like Mason only come around every 30 years,” he said.
Finley, a two-way tackle on the Demons football team, actually tried wrestling this winter to keep in shape but only got down to 316 pounds, 31 more than the weight limit. He said he’ll go back to basketball as a senior.
As for the shot put, he went 62-3 at this year’s Simplot Games, which ranks seventh-best in the state, with the 12-pounder used for high schoolers, and in 2007 recorded 52-2 1/2, second among Coloradans, with the college-version 16 pounds. Banich holds both state marks, 68-2 1/2 and 56-3 1/4, respectively.
Finley said he enjoys both discus and shot put, but there’s no doubt which event he prefers.
“You can watch the discus go higher and farther,” he said. “It looks better.”
